Maurice solo SYW

Inspired by Sam Mustafa's excellent Blucher rules I decided to give Maurice a retread as ages since I tried this set.

Set up my Seven Years War Russians versus my Prussians for a quick game.
Only part way through but really enjoying this.

Prussians are attacking with Russians ensconced on the objective (central hill) but with Freddie trying his standard oblique attack.

Prussians mainly Trained types with 2 Elite Grenadiers and 1 Elite Horse (Garde Du Korps).
Russians with Trained types, only a single Elite unit of Grenadiers) but a 4:1 advantage in Artillery.
Prussians have Cadance Step and Lethal Volleys and Russians have Steady Lads and Rally To The Colours as National Traits.

Nice dichotomy between using the card values to activate forces and their tactical advantages or events.
The Russian guns have dished up some punishment to Prussian targets (blue dice).







Prussians refusing their left and pushing forward on their right

The holding units on refused flank taking a few Disruptions from Russian guns

Oblique advance develops 

Russians line the objective

Prussian horse seek to clear way Russian counterparts from flank of their advancing foot

Prussian hand

Maurice Seven Years War

A Seven Years War bash today at Stephens with my Russians against the Prussians using the most excellent Maurice rules.
A really enjoyable game it was too (these are another very fun set of rules by Mr Mustafa).
We used the army builder points system and random terrain set-up with two 100 point armies.
Terrain was Plains and eight pieces in total. Stephen had Great Captain card (very appropriate for Frederick of course) Lethal Volleys and Cadence Step.
I had Rally To The Colours and Steady The Lads for my Ivans. Prussians were attackers and set up second (a big advantage).
They massed on my somewhat week left flank and with Cadence they were able to rush forward in column and deploy into line right in my face.
Russians were able to shore up flank by marching two Infantry units that had deployed in column as a reserve but of course being Maurice this meant they were doing little elsewhere having to dance continually it seemed to Prussian tune (composed by Frederick).
The ability of a Great Captain to allow the CinC a 'free' 8" move each round proved very effective indeed whereas the poor Russian CinC had to burn cards to move or else staying one place.
Pressure on Russian left eventually told as Prussians outgunned them.
We also tried using Notables for the first time today.
I had Cameron Von Muller (a Scots exile enobled in Germany) who I placed with my Elite Horse Grenadiers but since my Cavalry wing was not involved he got no chance to shine.
Prussians had a chap whose name I neglected to note who also attached to a Cavalry unit which charged a single battery of Artillery and was repulsed (my base 2 plus a 6 rolled vs a base 6 but only 1 rolled !!) and to add insult to injury he then failed his Hazard roll and was then killed !!
This was my only success however......................
A really fun game indeed with a set of rules I enjoy a lot as a nice balance of that chaos factor I like with very slick and playable systems. Everything is integrated very well and just simply works.

Russians deployed

Russian center and right wing Cavalry

The weaker left wing

Prussians massed on their right

Prussians getting numbers to count

Prussians deploy from columns

Russian center tries to re-deploy (note two units in column scurrying to left)

The Russians left has disappeared !

Out of focus (due to my tears !) shot of Russian dead pile

No Gold Medal for me but plenty for Team GB !!!! Huzzah !!!!

Maurice a 'proper' game

Played another game of Maurice today versus Stephen using my SYW Russians vs his Prussians.
Used the Army Builder system with two 100 point armies.
I fielded 17 units (1 Conscript 3 Trained &; 1 Elite Regular Cavalry with 3 Artillery and 8 Trained & 1 Elite Regular Infantry) with 'Steady Lads' army ability.
Prussians had 14 units (2 Elite & 2 Trained Cavalry 3 Artillery and 6 Trained & 1 Elite Infantry) with 'Lethal Volleys' and a 'Cavalier' Cavalry Charge Bonus card.
We drew an Urban set up card and I elected to defend (which gives Attacker a bonus Regular Unit which Stephen took as another Infantry unit).
A really enjoyable game ensued with Prussian setting up second and threatening my right wing with his Cavalry.
Ivans then advanced Infantry in center forcing Prussians to react thereby delaying the Cavalry.
This worked except that my Infantry took awful casualties from Prussian volley fire losing in the end 4 units of Infantry !!!
However we later discovered Stephen had mis-read the 'Lethal Volleys' card to allow all missed shooting rolls to be re-rolled whereas it should be re-roll failed Disruptions hits. 
This made the card a lot more potent that it should be (although the re-rolls of failed Disruptions still powerful).
I was subjected to the 'Not on the map' card finding 3 of my Infantry delayed by a marshy area.
Here I made a mistake forgetting that units not in same formation cannot be part of same formation for activations.
We allowed Stephen to discard one of my hand cards at random to compensate for my moving too many units in a single activation as I had units in column and line.
I then decided to launch my right wing cavalry in a death or glory charge against Prussian horse (whose extra ability only counted if they conducted the charge), but I charged without any melee modifying cards in my hand and was subjected to the Prussians playing a 'Stirups Forward' card which gave them +2 in each combat and my horse got mugged.
This left them vulnerable to being charged themselves which duly happened and they melted away taking Russian morale with them.

I learnt a lot today about the subtleties as opposed to bare mechanics of the game.
As defender having a reserve deployed in column is desirable to move to enemy focal point.
I mistakenly placed my Guns on a hill not realizing this gives them a -1 to shooting  (cannonballs digging into ground I assume) and that I should probably have maximized terrain (I chose to use my lower dice roll total) to try to close of a flank and channel enemy.
I also realized that in my solo game I had given shooters too many dice ie 2 per base (ala cannister) instead on 1 per base so volleys exchanges more attritional in nature today.
Also I ought to check enemy cards when used to make sure correctly applied !! :-)

Both really enjoyed the game with its to and fro nature, the card interaction and period flavour thereon, the tough decisions one has to make regarding use of cards and the fast and slick mechanics of the game system.
We went threw roughly one and a half decks today so got see a lot of cards in action.
And had smoke blocking fire, stirrups, deadly fire, a card that allowed me to move one enemy unit to break up a formation, co-ordinated moves, firefights, first fire and several others all generating a nice balance of chaos and narrative.

We are both already thinking how to improve play and army structure and how to apply to more historical type games.
The game has a lot of flexibility in this regard. Both found that a bland reading of rules really fails to convey the nature of the game play.
Very much a 'suck em and see' set. I initially queried lack of shooting for early period cavalry, no distinction between Heavy Cavalry types, no distinction between Rank and Platoon firing methods but once game gets going you realize they are not required in a game of this scope and design and yet the outcomes are and feel plausible.

First time ever we have failed to polish of the 'on-table' snacks during a game and we almost forget lunch so engrossed where we in the game which says a lot believe me !!!!!!

  

Opening artillery bombardments

The Prussians 

The Russians

Russian right wing horse

Russian center

Prussian right wing

Prussian center

Russian Infantry advance and 'find' that damn marsh

Prussian horse threaten my right

Forced into columns to avoid the difficult ground

Clash of foot in center (which had schewed outcome due to mis-reading of card) Russians have already lost 2 front line units here and 2 more about to go.

It did take Prussian focus away from their cavalry sweep

Maurice a wee bit more

Played through another few phases of Maurice today.
Several volley phases conducted and Charges to see how these worked.
Potentially rather bloody/decisive is the answer.
In firing a 4 base unit rolls 2D6 per base needing a basic 4+ to hit (some modifiers plus possible card effects) any hits are then rolled again to cause Disruptions on target (based on unit quality with 3+ fr Conscripts, 4+ for Trained and 5+ for Elites).
If rolling for both is high then possible to blow a unit away in one swoop (Regular units are broken upon 5th Disruption), or conversely low rolls mean few hits/disruptions.
Generally I found 1-2 hits an average so after 3-4 rounds a unit most likely broken if not rallied.
One can use a Rally action to try to roll off Disruptions.
Charging is an action (at least half a formation must get into contact but rest can move up in support) and fairly simple to resolve.
Any contact is a melee and units within 1BW can sometimes be included if to your front. This can lead to outnumbering modifiers for either side.
Several cards can modify Combat, I used 'Grenadiers Forward' for an Austrian charge which gave any friendly Infantry a +2.
Each unit on a side calculates their Combat Value which is sum of modifiers plus basic value (4-8 depending unit Class/Type) plus 1D6 roll, which is noted (by use of dice) beside each unit (bit like Shako system).
Defenders check outcome first which are based on 'equal or more', 'less but not doubled' and 'doubled' type outcomes each of which generate 1-2 Disruptions or an auto-break.
The attacker then does same but on equals take 2 rather than 1 Disruption.
If units still in contact  an attacker must Fall Back 1BW and one needs to be careful that supports not too close as interpenetration in rules cause Disruptions on units.
If a unit is broken it is removed and a D6 rolled to see how many Army Morale points are lost, ranging  from 1-3 for loss of Regulars with Artillery possibly costing no morale loss.
One note re Irregular type troops is that they do not contribute to Army Morale level (unless Feudal type army ie Ottomans) but do count against Morale losses if broken, so whilst cheap and cheerful they can be liability.
All in all rather impressed with system, abstract in many ways yes but playable, quick and fun with more period flavour than is at first apparent.
Very much of similar complexity/scope to Field Of Battle, Die Fighting or Might and Reason rules.

Looking forward to trying out my SYW Russians against Stephens Prussian ubermensch on Thursday.

Struggle for the hill with both forces showing gaps in lines after volleying and charging

Cavalry melee which saw both sides lose a unit

Maurice play test some action

Played first few 'rounds' of game and so far so good.
The interaction of phases/rounds/card play/streamlined mechanics makes for a very fun game full of decisions and events (even solo).
The costs in command values to activate formations leads one to adopt fairly simple plan and not have units swanning off on their own.
Use of cards for activation generally means you lose their action or event possibilities (some of which are very desirable and/or intriguing).
Thus far I have done Volleys, Charges, Marches, Bombardments but no Pass 'actions' (a Pass allows you to draw in 3 cards the other actions 0-2 draws depending on type).
Playing solo  removes the tension I suspect will be present in good measure when one does not know content of opponent hand.
Played some cards for the 'Special Actions' and a couple of pure 'Event' cards including one by Austrians entitled 'Thats not on the map' which allows you to place a small piece of marsh or rocky ground anywhere (except on troops or other terrain) this allowed me to thwart a potential charge by French horse (the card whilst potent can be removed from deck for duration by either player - which French promptly did).
Nice card for French was 'Co-ordinated Movement' which allowed 2 formations to activate for March or Rally actions on play of this card if both within 12 base-widths (ie 40mm in my game) of CiC.
Several cards are interrupt or modifying types that can thwart any enemy action or adjust a dice roll.
I have not used Notables (character type sub-commanders) or Towns in my game just to keep things simpler but these do not seem onerous to use.

Have only skimmed the 'Succession Wars' campaign rules but again these look fine, essentially a set of battles (no real strategic/political type stuff) for multiples of 2 players and looks tailor made for 'Imagi-nations' players. There are 3 historical scenarios in book (Brandywine, Fontenoy & Kolin) and set of notes on how to make such scenarios. All in all quite impressed and will give them another run out on Thursday against Stephen if he is willing (he has set)


French Inf charge in using 2 Cards (1 a Nationality trait allowing re-rolls of combat dice the other an 'ignore Disruptions during combat' card) but the Austrians responded with a nasty 'Hold The Line' card which gives defenders +2 to dice rolls. Click on photo for better look at cards)

French columns try to flank enemy line but a single unit 'Force' of Cavalry moves to block them 

(but the move was rather costly in command values )

French horse find way to end of enemy line 'suddenly' blocked by an unseen patch of marsh 

Managed to buy this on EBay this evening too.
But I strongly fear for my well being if I do not manage to intercept this before certain prying eyes observe it !!!!!!

Maurice play test set-up

Set up a game of Maurice (got to keep thinking More-eeice not Morris !) using my WSS 10mm stuff for a solo try out.
Game planned for Thursday against Stephen using either this with our SYW or else a WWII bash with IABSM3.
Used the Army builder to generate 2 x 100pt armies of French and Austrians.
Austrians are defending with a Great Captain Card (Eugene) with 14 units.
French have 16 units with Maison Du Roi and a la Baionette cards.
Terrain card draw was Plains.
Austrians have 1 Elite Cavalry the rest Trained the French 1 Elite Cavalry and 1 Elite Infantry with 2 Conscript Infantry the remainder Trained.
Units deployed and hopefully will get some action post food intake.

Overview of deployments

French

Austrians

French 'hand' of 8 cards for attacking

Austrian 'hand' with 2 extra cards for having Great Captain